1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing device provided in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a laser beam printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a fixing device provided in a copying machine or a laser beam printer includes a heating rotary member and performs thermal fixing processing of a toner image with heat from the heating rotary member. There has been known a toner having wax added thereto so as to impart effects such as the adjustment of glossiness of an image and dispersibility of a pigment to the toner and so as to suppress a fixing offset (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H08-184992).
However, when a toner image is subjected to thermal fixing processing, the wax liquefies and partially remains on the heating rotary member, and gasifies by receiving heat continuously. The gasified wax becomes ultra-fine particles (UFPs) with a diameter of 0.1 micrometer or less and may float in the surrounding space through a surrounding air current in some cases.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fixing device capable of decreasing the release amount of the UFPs generated from the heating rotary member.